WRECKS ON THE BEACH NEAR VERA CRUZ, MEXICO
And eloquent they are of a form of civilization that spends its energies on internecine war
rather than upon the improvement of the lanes of the near-by sea
who were poor, but who stifled the voice
of nature, probably less at the suggestions
of poverty than of a wretched supersti
tion.
CANNIBALS WITH REFINED TASTES
The most loathsome part of the story
the manner in which the body of the sac
rificed captive was disposed of-remains
yet to be told. It was delivered to the
warrior who had taken him in battle, and
by him, after being dressed, was served
up in an entertainment to his friends.
This was not the coarse repast of fam
ished cannibals, but a banquet teeming
with delicious beverages and delicate
viands, prepared with art and attended
by both sexes, who conducted themselves
with all the decorum of civilized life.
Surely never were refinement and the ex
treme of barbarism brought so closely in
contact with each other!
Human sacrifices have been practised
by many nations, not excepting the most
polished nations of antiquity, but never
by any on a scale to be compared with
those in Anahuac.
Agriculture in M\exico was in the same
advanced state as the other arts of social
life. In few countries, indeed, has it
been more respected. It was closely in
terwoven with the civil and religious in
stitutions of the nation. There were pe
culiar deities to preside over it; the names
of the months and of the religious festi
vals had more or less reference to it.
Among the most important articles of
husbandry we may notice the banana.
Another celebrated plant was the cacao,
the fruit of which furnished the choco
late-from the Mexican chocolatl-now
so common a beverage throughout Eu
rope. The vanilla, confined to a small
district of the seacoast, was used for the
same purposes, of flavoring their food
and drink, as with us.
MEAL AND SUGAR FROM MAIZE
The great staple of the country, as, in
deed, of the American continent, was
maize, or Indian corn, which grew freely
along the valleys and up the steep sides
of the Cordilleras to the high level of the
table-land. The Aztecs were as curious
in its preparation and as well instructed
in its manifold uses as the most expert
New England housewife. Its gigantic
stalks, in these equinoctial regions, af-